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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

I'm getting ready for a Halloween party here in Italy this week, and with the combination of languages, I was afraid the other version of BINGO might just be a little too much for this group. We also have quite a few really young kids, so I wanted something that wouldn't take as much time (short attention spans and all, you know?).

So here's a 4x4 BINGO. Each item/drawing is only repeated once, so there's no hassle with putting the items back in, etc.

And HERE IS THE LINK for the printable. Some people said the font I used for BINGO wasn't showing up correctly, so you may have to download the actual font. It's called Halloween Spider and is free on DaFont.com.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Well the Christmas season has arrived in Italy! We brought a little of it with us, and I am excited to spend a few of them here in this beautiful country. :)

I made our family theses burlap stockings a couple years ago, and I have loved them, but they've been really generic without our names on them because I wasn't exactly sure what to do on the burlap. It's difficult to paint and keep in the lines and looking tidy/professional.

This year, I ventured into the world of the Silhouette Cameo, and I am smitten!

My only problem was finding a material that would iron-on well to the jute webbing/burlap that I have around the cuff...

Until I was browsing the HappyCrafters.com website and found this awesome stuff and decided to give it a try!

It's called "Flock" iron-on vinyl. I took a pic of it close up, so you can kind of see the texture. It's really velvety and smooth. I did a test run on a piece of the jute webbing, and it worked like a charm! I can't tell you how excited I was to find something that worked AND matched perfectly!

My stockings were inspired by these Ballard Designs stockings.

I looked for a link to their stockings, but again, this was two years ago, so they no longer sell this exact style.

But since we have 4 girls in our house, I knew the plain tan wasn't going to cut the cheese. So I had to girly them up a bit. You can visit my tutorial here on how to make pleats. I think they turned out almost perfect. ;)

My only word of caution with the red burlap (since I've also used it to cover ornaments for our Christmas tree) is that it fades to almost an orange color if left in direct sunlight. I keep my stockings away from windows, and they've kept their original deep color for 2.5 Christmas seasons. :)

It's strange to not have a mantle this year. I guess that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make to live in Tuscany. ;)

I was able to fit all 6 family members and the dog on one 12x15 sheet of flock vinyl. An excellent $5.25 investment if I might say!

Aloha,

Charlie

DISCLAIMER: I received product and compensation from HappyCrafters.com for this post. The opinions, ideas, and tutorials are my own.

This is a fun little project that is perfect to give away for almost any occasion. A birthday boy or girl would be thrilled to have this as their gift or added to their gift!

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

* Curling ribbon
* Saran Wrap
* Treats
* Cash (optional)

That's it! Super basic supplies that most moms have on-hand, right?!

This week we spent a lot of time waiting for dad to out-process (military translation: spend a full week driving around your post getting random signatures and waiting in lots and lots of lines and meetings). During one of those meetings, I had to get creative with 4 bored children, so I started busting out my origami skills with some dollars.

If you've spent much time on Oahu, you may know that the Japanese culture also has a large presence on the island. My kids' school actually teaches both Hawaiian and Japanese, and they spend some time doing origami. I've always enjoyed tinkering with paper, and with three girls, it provides hours of entertainment!

This day's creations were a fish, a jumping frog, and a heart flower. You can find decent tutorials for those on YouTube, so I'd recommend searching there if you'd like to add them to your lei as well.

Now let's get working on our leis!

STEP 1:
Spread out your cling wrap on a flat surface. The length will depend on the size of the recipient. If you scroll to the end, you can see mine is on a 7-year-old, and the length of my wrap was about 30".

STEP 2:
Position your treats on the wrap. I put them in about 2" from the front edge, so it's easier to make the first wrap. I use 6 or 7 treats depending on their size.

And I leave maybe 2" or 3" between each item, depending on their size.

STEP 3:
Fold the bottom edge up and over your treats.

STEP 4:
Continue rolling the rest of the wrap with the items in it until it is all rolled up. I did this project with a class of 2nd graders and a class of 1st graders, and they got really nervous about this part. DON'T STRESS YOURSELF OUT! It's all going to look about the same anyway. Just roll it up! :) It doesn't have to be perfection.

You can see my fishy was kind of hard to make out once he was all wrapped up, but I wasn't too worried. I know they'll see $$ and will be thrilled! Then once they get it open, they'll be excited to see it's in a shape. ;)

STEP 5:
Cut your curling ribbon into pieces about 6" long (longer if you want bigger curls), and tie them at the ends and between each of the treats.

BONUS: As always, I was looking for extra things to keep my girls content and occupied while I was working on this, and they love to "help", so I put them to work cutting out tons of these little flowers. I drew a template for them, and they got to work. Then I just slid them on near the pieces of ribbon for a little added color. The center holes of some were a bit too large, so they fell off. If you're going to do this step, I'd recommend adding a piece of tape to close that slit end back together after attaching them to the lei.

I loved all the colors, though! And keeping my kids entertained, involved, and in the same room as me is always an added bonus.

STEP 6:
Curl your ribbons and then take the two ends and tie them in a knot together. You can trim the excess plastic if it bugs you too much. It didn't bother me until I was editing my photos and noticed it. Ha!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Well, folks, I finally jumped on the Silhouette bandwagon. Are you hooked yet? This was my first project, and I am amazed!

It took me a minute to get it figured out and able to do what I wanted, but once it started cutting all those letters out, I just wanted to sit and watch it work its magic. So fun!

I mentioned my new prize to my sister-in-law, Jami, and we started brainstorming projects we could do. She mentioned there's a little barn near her house being torn down, and we knew it would be the perfect background for our artwork.

This is actually right on the ground, and the walls are spread out on the ground around it. Pretty cool, though!

The wall planks are tongue-in-groove, so it made a nice tight fit. We sanded off some of the crap (literally) that was on it but were careful to leave the chippy paint and character that the fading made. Then we lined them up so the faded ends were staggered and measured our pieces.

Our finished sign was 40" wide x about 32" high. If you're recreating something similar and don't have a barn nearby to use wood from, I'd use 6" wood. You'd need three 8' pieces, but it would still be less than $15! You can even weather or age the wood using steel wool and vinegar! Visit THIS tutorial from my friend Being Brook.

Here's an example of her weathered headboad:

We ended up deciding on subway art using words that have to do with their family

In order to maximize my vinyl and not waste, I created my artwork in InDesign first and then just duplicated the words and fonts in the Silhouette program but crunched it all in the space provided (maximum 12" width).

My vinyl is from HappyCrafters.com. Their white matte comes in 12x24 and 12x12, and their prices beat big stores even with a 40% off coupon! They also ship to Hawaii and overseas military addresses. Wahoo!

Then I cut out each word, and Jami and I painstakingly placed each letter. Truthfully, it would have been a 30 minute project, but with 8 kids running around, we may have stretched it out to 2 hours. Ha!

But tell me it's not totally worth it for the end result?! And it fits their adorable family to a T.

Tell me that's not one of the cutest families you've ever seen!

This was also a room transformation. It previously had a forest green wall, so we made Mike paint painted it a more neutral color and found some great burlap chevron pillow covers at Hobby Lobby. And I sewed the small brown/silver pillow. It was my first attempt at piping! Not bad, but my corners need a little work. Don't look too close. ;)

I love Jami's style. She has a great eye and knows how to accessorize and pull a room together. Here's the wall where you first walk into the room:

And now the main entry room:

For more of Jami's projects, visit MY PROJECTS page and scroll to the bottom to see a few links to her work!

And if you love a bargain and are just starting to build up your vinyl collection, HappyCrafters.com is offering a free sheet of black iron-on vinyl. Just visit their home page and see for yourself. No coupon codes needed!

DISCLAIMER:
This post was partially sponsored by HappyCrafters.com. All work, photography, ideas, and opinions are my own.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Spring cleaning has been on my mind lots this month, so when I saw this week's "spring" theme, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

My girls have lots of "treasures" that they just have to keep and love to collect. Where do they like to keep them? Oh, you know...right on their dressers. In plain sight. Where I stare at and loathe them every time I walk by--but bite my tongue because I don't want to be the mean mom that gets rid of their most prized possessions!

I have seen some lockers being used as storage or bookshelves and decided to stalk Craigslist (for months) until I finally scored this battered set for $10! YAY!!

It took some hammering and twisting and tweaking to get all the doors to finally hang right and actually shut properly, but I finally got it functioning. THEN that dark purple and yellow paint job had to go. I chose white, and that wasn't the smartest decision I've ever made, but I wasn't sure exactly what colors I was going to do in the room and didn't want to be married to any particular spray paint color. White seemed like a good alternative, but it took two cans of primer and another two and a half cans of white lacquer spray paint! I also had to let it dry for about 2 weeks because the smell was SO strong, and I didn't want it in their room until it had aired out a bit.

But I feel like it's a beautiful compromise to our clutter situation. The kids now feel like they have a special, secret place to hide their trinkets and treasures, and I don't feel like a mean mom for making them get rid of them (but my OCD side is happy their dressers are now clutter-free).

We painted some frames and added magnets to the back of them to give the lockers a little color and life, and the girls couldn't be happier!

Saturday, March 16, 2013

What do you do when it's Friday night, and your 4-year-old has a birthday party to attend the next day, and you REALLY don't want to make a trip to Wal-mart with all your kids--and your husband is busy (longest sentence ever)? :)

You sort through your scraps and build something, of course!

I had both a 1x6 scrap and a 1x8 scrap, so I thought they would make the perfect headboard and footboard for an upholstered American Girls doll bed.

CUT LIST:

1x6 - 1@ 8" long for footboard

1x8 - 1@ 8" long for headboard

1x2 - 2@ 9" long for headboard posts

- 2@ 7.25" long for footboard posts

- 5@ 9.5" long for slats

1x3 - 2@ 19" long for side rails

Step 1) Attach headboard posts to headboard by either using pocket screws and a jig or using 2.5" screws and glue (like I did)

Step 2) Do the same for the footboard pieces

Step 3) Build your base using 1.5" nails and wood glue. I chose to do 1x3's on the siderails, so the mattress sits down inside the rails a bit.

Step 4) Upholster the headboard and footboard, but as you can see from this pic below, I was careful not to staple along the bottom quite yet since you will need to lift it up to attach them to the base. And upholster your side rails.

Step 5) Use 1.5" screws and attach the headboard and footboard to your base. I think I did 5 screws on each end.

Since it was for my daughter's friend, I let her dig through all my fabric and choose the upholstery, pillow fabrics, and bedding fabrics. I wasn't loving all the black and white, but she insisted that's what she wanted. And she chose just a basic soft felt fabric for the comforter and wouldn't let me even put any trim on it! I had to practically beg her to let me give it the pink accent pillow. Ha!

You can see that as I was in a hurry to build, I didn't measure my headboard and footboard pieces correctly, so my side rails are slightly inset. I like the look of the flush side rails, so that is how the plans are.

I'm happy to report that the bed was the hit of the party, and it's become a favorite toy already. Can't beat that! And it helped use up some of my scrap stash, and that always makes my husband happy! Double win!

I wish I had a picture with the dolls, so you can see the size, but this it large. It's built to fit an American Girl 18" doll! So fun to give handmade gifts!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Okay, friends. Here's the skinny. I'm trying to clean out and organize my craft stuff, and it's just ridiculously embarrassing. My husband is sick of all my crap, and I have duplicates of many things, SOOOOO...some other bloggers and I have joined forces to bring you an amazing giveaway!

We're also joined by our friends from the newly launched site, Looksi, a carefully curated collection of crafts and DIY ideas.

All of these amazing people have offered up a box full of goodies from their unused stash of craft
supplies, and SEVEN lucky readers are each going to walk away with three of these incredible goodie
boxes! Be sure to click on the links above to visit all of the blogs to catch a sneak peek at what's inside
some of our boxes!

Because we're shipping in USPS flat rate boxes, this giveaway is open to residents of the US only.